THE DRIVING FORCE OF NEW ZEALAND TRUCKING
RTF supports upgrading urban passenger rail and its infrastructure
Customers drive just-in-time realities of 21st Century freight
I by Nick Leggett Chief Executive Road Transport Forum NZ
N MAY, THE GOVERNMENT RELEASED THE New Zealand Rail Plan, with State Owned Enterprises Minister David Clark saying that the plan – “and the Government’s commitment to rail – is designed to set the right conditions to balance our transport system and create options for NZers.” My question is: How can this balance NZ’s transport system and create options, when rail currently shifts so little of our freight task…and the opportunity to increase this share is so small? Said Clark: “We’re making sure that KiwiRail has the trains it needs to carry more freight around the country, and that the tracks in our cities and regions are up to standard to support freight and commuter growth.” Having enough trains does not automatically mean customers will choose rail over road, especially with timesensitive freight, or freight that needs to be delivered doorto-door. Increasing the number of trains won’t reduce the number of trucks on the road – if anything, more trucks will be needed to move freight from the source to the railhead and from the railhead to the end customer. The NZ Rail Plan is essentially a plan to have a plan, to make rail a contender for a greater share of the freight task and
bump trucks off the road. It totally misses the mark of what is happening in freight movement globally. Freight is customer-driven: The customers get to choose the best way to have their goods delivered. The Government cannot direct the movement of freight just because it wants to – unless, of course, we annul all the progress made through the deregulation of the 1980s. Currently, 93% of the freight moved in NZ is moved by road. That is projected to grow, given increased customer demands. But the Government will now take the money road users pay into the National Land Transport Fund (NLTF) to further subsidise KiwiRail, with some fantastical notion that rail can take a considerable amount of freight off roads. We think the user-pays model means the money collected for roads should go to fixing dangerous roads and building some new ones – which will benefit the economy and the environment. A 2019 study found that preventative maintenance of road pavements could reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by up to 2%, even after adopting a life-cycle perspective and taking into account pollution generated during road construction. Wouldn’t it be great if this Government put its money where its mouth is and maintained the roads – something we Truck & Driver | 35
